Beyond the Horizon
by Tsukiko no Yuki
Summary: AU, NekuShiki. Neku has returned from the Game, but a glitch occurs and after seven days in the real world, he’s thrown into a parallel dimension in which he never died! How can he return? And how can he get help from friends that don’t even remember him?


**Disclaimer: I don't own The World Ends With You. I really wished I did, though -- I'd have totally made it into a manga if that were the case.**

* * *

**//… oo0. reset**

_Sometimes, we all wish it was over._

"… Hey, do you remember….?"

"… yeah, and then we…"

"… kicked their asses! You shoulda seen 'im bawlin'-"

It's strange, I guess.

Walking down the streets with friends I never knew I could have – streets that at the same time feel familiar and unfamiliar. I was born and raised in Shibuya – I've known these streets and buildings all my life. The 104, Dogenzaka, AMX… just to name a few.

Then, I entered the Game. Things that I thought I knew were warped in my mind into something completely different, leaving impressions and memories that I never imagined could appear in such places. They replaced the old impressions, the old memories I had.

They replaced the old me.

What has become 'familiar' to me anymore, I don't even know.

_It can be anything. School, work, relationships, life – just so we can kick back and relax._

"… ku? Neku? Are you listening?"

"Huh?" Snapping back to reality, I stared at the three faces in front of me, all of them wearing different expressions. Beat's face has cracked into a familiar grin, Rhyme is wearing her usual smile, and Shiki –

One thing I rest assured about that remains unfamiliar, though, is Shiki's changed appearance.

It doesn't make a big difference to what I think about her. To me, she's still Shiki – my first, and probably best – friend. The person I've to thank for helping me through that first horrible week, for teaching me more than she can possibly imagine (sadly, this also includes fashion, which I couldn't care less about).

And it isn't like her appearance is _bad_. The way her self-esteem used to be, you'd think that she was downright horrid – not that that would've made such a big difference either. I've never cared much for appearances. But –

"Neku?" I blink a couple of times, realizing I still haven't answered. Their facial expressions have gone through another change – Beat wears a quite smug look as he indiscreetly disguises a laugh as a cough, Rhyme's smile of warmth has suddenly turned into something reminiscent of a wicked smirk, and Shiki is gazing confusedly at me, her brows pulling together as her cheeks turned just the slightest pink at my intense stare.

_Nothing to worry about. Nothing you wished you could escape from. No problems. Just calm, peace, harmony – setting your difficulty to "normal" as you reset the game of life._

"Er, yeah. Sorry, I just spaced out a bit."

"Yeah, we noticed," Beat snickered, causing Rhyme's elbow to nudge him in the ribs. "What's up with ya, man? You've been spacin' out on us since lunch. Did that Don dude poison your ramen, or what?"

"His name is Ken, Beat," his little sister corrected him patiently and then eyed me with a look that clearly apologized for his behavior – although her regret didn't seem all too genuine with that strange look of hers that clearly suggested she was up to something – and that something was definitely _no good_. "No, Neku is just thinking about something _special_, aren't you, Neku?"

I stifled the urge to roll my eyes. So _that _was where she was getting at. "Yeah, I am. Haven't you guys realized where we are?"

The three exchanged confused glances, then briefly scanned the area – although not the same type of scan as we used to perform in the Game, but with their eyes – before they all uttered a simultaneous 'Oh'.

"Udagawa," Shiki said in her low voice as her eyes turned away from me and stared at the familiar wall before us. "Hmm…"

"You still hung up on that, man?" Beat questioned, his voice just hinting the slightest sadness.

"Nah, not really…" My voice trailed off as I reached out my hand to touch the graffiti design made by CAT, just like one month prior to this. "I just sorta… reminisced, you know."

"Rinimized. Yeah, I know, I do sometimes too," he agreed, nodding understandingly.

"It's _reminisced_, Beat," Shiki now corrected him in Rhyme's place.

_So we run. We restart, our experiences from our last game fresh, and everything seems to become easy as you smoothly move through familiar paths, be it whatever – school, work, romance, life._

"Yeah, yeah, same shit," Beat answered dismissively, as both of the girls laughed.

My hand kept reaching forward, their voices feeling so distant, yet so close at the same time – just like the painting. Although my senses that it'd be best to just leave it be, even if the chance that Joshua would appear to force me back into the Game would be below zero, not rustling the settling memories of _that _day.

But at the same time, without it, I'd never have met my friends. I'd never have changed. And furthermore, I'd never have been _happy_.

_What do we call it? Going back to "normal"?_

"Yo, Phones, are you done yet? This is gettin' old," he unsubtly tried to change the subject from himself and his lack of language skills. "Can't we get goin'? I heard the Cyco Records got some new tracks, I wanna check 'em out."

I didn't answer. There was a strange sensation at the very ends of my fingertips as they stroked the roughed surface of the wall. It was as though they had been encased in ice that was drowning in a sea of flames – a peculiar feeling that strangely didn't hurt at all.

"Neku… your hand," Shiki's voice said, alarmed; I stared at my fingers – a light had started to glow just beneath them, an orb of light that was increasing in size. Just what the heck was going on?

"Hey, what the hell is –"

Beat's voice was drowned in the noise that enveloped and almost crushed my eardrums the nanosecond afterwards. The light engulfed me at a startling speed as my eyelids automatically shut closed, and a whooshing sound and a feeling of the lack of gravity replaced the familiar things about Udagawa – the smell, the sound, the _feeling_ of being with my friends.

I opened my eyes and realized I was all alone.

Again.

* * *

_But there has never been a normal in the first place. And you realize that although you thought you could just restart your game and take it easy, 'easy' just doesn't exist._

* * *

It was Udagawa.

If I had moved at all, it'd have astonished me. As I swiftly looked about, I realized I was standing in the exact spot as before – just that my hand now was firmly tucked into my pocket, and that neither Shiki, Beat nor Rhyme was in sight.

But the sounds were still there – the voices of the girls who were diving for the latest products of the Wild Boar store; the familiar hip-hop/electro/rock songs at a rather attention-craving volume from the Cyco Records; the never-ending stream of passersby, talking and laughing among themselves.

The smell was still there, too – the smell of faint traces of girls' perfume or guys' cologne, the smell of sweat as it was a hot day in August, the smell of the food trailing down the street.

But although gravity tied me to the ground, the churning feeling in my stomach made me feel like I was walking on air. There was something quite unnerving about the scene, and even more unnerving about my friends' disappearance.

That's when I saw them.

_You see, in this game, the level is always set to 'difficult'. You can't ever change that._

"Beat! Rhyme!" I called in relief as I saw them grinning to each other, talking about something unknown to my ears as they followed the stream towards god-knows-where. They stopped just right in front of me, looking slightly confused as Beat scanned the crowd indiscreetly, pivoting around in search of something.

"Huh? Hey, did you hear someone callin' on us?"

"It was probably just your imagination, Beat," Rhyme assured him. "Or they just talked about music at Cyco Records."

He shrugged, scrutinized me for the brief passing of a second, and then turned back to his little sister. "Yeah. I ain't seeing nobody I know."

_So it's not going to change anything that you pressed the 'reset' button. You may not face the same villains or fight the same battles, but one thing's for sure…_

I stared at them in disbelief. Was it possible? Had I restarted the Game? Had Joshua really killed me again – but then why did Beat and Rhyme seem so unaffected by everything? Why hadn't I gotten a timer, and why was there no Noise in sight?

I looked around for something – just _something_ – to reassure me that I was completely sane, and that nothing particular had happened. I found it in the very outer corner of Wild Boar.

… _you'll always have some kind of villains. The game never stands still. The plot keeps on moving…_

"Shiki?" I shouted. "Shiki!"

… _just like your life. Real life never stops._

The girls froze and turned around abruptly – Eri looking fairly but pleasantly surprised as I approached them, while Shiki looked downright startled and… _afraid_?

"Shiki?" I tried, my lips cracking into a smile as I realized that she could _see_ me. Then I wasn't dead, after all. "What happened? I was standing at the wall one minute and the next –"

_And so, the dice has been cast again._

"I'm sorry," she cut me off apologetically, her voice stuttering slightly in astonishment, "do I know you?"

* * *

Okay, it's my first shot at a TWEWY fanfic, and furthermore, my first shot at a NekuShiki fanfic, so don't kill me if this is complete crap, please?

To those who read my other fanfics: I'm really sorry about the lack of updates, but real life has been so busy lately... I do occasionally write The Boyfriend Test when I've the chance, and I've almost completed chapter 5, but I gotta warn you, it's pretty long since I wanted to make up for the long hiatus. I don't know about Fear of the Light, though... I wanted to upload the next chapter, but then my sister just had to break my USB, and her friend is really slow at repairing it, so...


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